Online Poker – Full Tilt Poker Suspends Brian TownsendTownsend Loses Red Pro Status for One Month |
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Full Tilt Pro Brian Townsend (pictured right) has been suspended from his red pro status for one month, following allegations that he shared a database of 50,000 hands with recent Isildur1 slayer Brian Hastings.
Hastings, a senior at Cornell University, managed to take the unknown Swede for $4.2 million in a short span of just 5 hours on Dec. 8. On a recent interview on The Poker Edge podcast on ESPN, Hastings credited his win to friend and fellow Card Runners instructor Townsend, acknowledging that it wouldn’t have been possible without his help.
“Honestly, I give most of the credit to Brian Townsend here,” he said. “I mean, Brian is honestly the hardest worker I know in poker. He analyzed a database of heads-up hands that Isildur1 had played and constructed ranges of what Isildur1 was doing in certain spots. The three of us discussed a ton of hands and the reports that Brian made, so I’m very thankful to him and to Cole [South] as well.”
Appearing innocent at first, those compliments triggered a backlash when Full Tilt Poker’s terms and conditions were given further examination. They clearly state, “Full Tilt Poker defines an unfair advantage as a user accessing or compiling information on other players beyond that which the user has personally observed through his or her own game play.”
Since it was Townsend who compiled the hand histories, he was the one given what amounts to a slap on the wrist from Full Tilt. For the duration of one month, Townsend will lose his red pro status and the benefits that accompany it. The penalty will potentially cost Townsend thousands of dollars in rakeback and wages.
In his blog, Townsend accepted full responsibility, but took care to clarify just how much of a gray area the rule operates in. “I had about 20k hands of play on Isildur1 and I acquired another 30k hands,” he wrote. “Of the three, I was the sole one to break the T&C of Full Tilt. The three of us never shared hands where mucked hands were shown besides a few hands I posted on weaktight.org, and in fact all the information I received could be taken from watching the game.”
Townsend continued, quickly denying other, more serious accusations. “Cole, Hastings and I live about 3,000 miles from each other. I have never played on Brian H’s or Cole S’s account. I analyzed the database I put together, and the three of us chatted about my analysis, and optimal strategy against Isildur. Any discussion we had occurred away from the table when we were not playing a session.”
In his interview with ESPN, Hastings explained, “At that level, to be successful, you really have to take advantage of the little things. They can help make the difference.”
It is unknown at this time if Hastings (pictured left) will be penalized for utilizing the hand history database en route to what it being reported as the most profitable single poker session of all time. Neither Full Tilt or Hastings has responded to inquiries for comment on this story.
The three players in question — Townsend, South and Hastings — have now combined to take over $5.6 million from Isildur1. Those losses have made him an overall loser on the year, despite his domination over Tom Dwan and others. As a result, many who follow the high-stakes games assume that Isildur1 may be a bit cash poor at the moment and his recent stints at $10/$20 pot-limit Omaha have done nothing to curb those rumors.
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